This study was part of a larger, longitudinal project investigating the relationships between family stress processes and children's development. The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationship between authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative parenting styles and children's classroom motivation as measured by child interviews and teacher perceptions.

The population of this study included 281 first and third grade students and their parents in a mid-sized Southern city. Parenting styles data for this study were collected via mailed questionnaires consisting of the Primary Caregivers Practices Report (Robinson et al., 1995) and questions used to obtain demographic information. Motivation data were collected via child interviews using the Self-Report Scale of Intrinsic versus Extrinsic Motivation in the Classroom (Harter, 1981) and the Teacher-Report Scale of Intrinsic versus Extrinsic Motivation in the Classroom (Harter, 1981), which was given to teachers to complete.

Correlation analyses were performed to determine which demographic characteristics should be used as control variables. Regression analyses were performed to examine the relationship between parenting styles and children's classroom motivation. In general, the results of the current study did not support the researcher's expectations that the authoritative parenting style would be positively related to children's intrinsic motivation, and authoritarian and permissive parenting styles would be negatively related to children's intrinsic motivation. The results were inconclusive. As expected by the researcher, mothers' authoritative parenting was found to be positively related to first graders' mastery motivation, fathers' authoritarian parenting was found to be negatively related to first graders' mastery motivation, and mothers' permissive parenting was negatively related to teachers' perceptions of children's classroom motivation. Contrary to the researcher's expectations, fathers' authoritarian parenting was found to be positively related to third graders' mastery motivation and teachers' perceptions of children's classroom motivation.